About Helena Kelly
Helena began her career with Schrader Electronics prior to the Sensata acquisition, as a Mechanical Manufacturing Engineer with a specialism in Plastic Laser Welding having completed her final year project on this topic in conjunction with the company. Helena moved to the NPI TPMS team in 2014 as a Project Leader and in the past two years has worked in the HVOR TPMS team as a Project Manager for Truck and Trailer OEM developments.
Like many of her predecessors and contemporaries, she has journeyed through education and industry in a field that is heavily dominated by men. To date this has not been a wholly negative experience for her, however it has been pointed out that more female influence would bring great benefits to all aspects of technical and non-technical work.
From this, Helena was inspired with four of her female engineering colleagues to set up the first Affinity Group in Antrim specifically to meet the unique needs of women in the workplace. GROW (Generating Recognition and Opportunities for Women) has always been an inclusive, safe environment for anyone to network and avail of great training in complementary subjects to normal business operations, but the main driver behind the intiative was to ensure that the amazing, albeit small, number of female staff based in Northern Ireland were supported in the topics where women often struggle – such as confidence, networking skills and negotiation. This has led to GROW organizing and hosting two very successful Global D&I Celebration Events, with the third well in the planning!
It has been a great joy for Helena to see the D&I Initiative grow as it has over my time with the company, in our changing world it is so important to harness the positive elements that different people can bring to business.